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– Arne Duncan, the U.S. Education Secretary, visited Morehouse today as part of a nationwide plan to encourage and recruit more students of different backgrounds to have a teaching career. He told students at the college that only 2% of black men become teachers, but more are needed to help address the achievement gap and aid the country in the global economy.

“If we’re serious about giving all of our young children a chance to fulfill their tremendous academic and social potential, they need the role models, they need the mentors in their lives, not just the high school level but the first, second and third grade,” he said.

He encouraged the students by telling them that salaries are rising, and that a new program will forgive student loans in exchange for ten years of teaching. Duncan stated, “So we’re really trying to remove those barriers and elevate the status of the entire teaching profession.”

Duncan was joined by Morehouse Alum Spike Lee. The meeting was one event in a five year effort hosted by the federal government to place 80,000 new African American male teachers in classrooms by 2015.

– A pilot program is underway in Daegu, south east of Seoul, South Korea that uses robots to teach. There are 29 robots in this initial phase of the program, and they teach English to elementary students. The robots are each about 3.5 feet high, have a TV display panel for a face (which displays the face of a Caucasian woman), and wheel around the classroom.

They are controlled remotely by teachers in the Philippines, who can actually see and hear the students. Cameras detect the facial expressions of the actual human teachers and express them on the TV panel faces of the robots. The test ‘teachers’ were developed by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. The program is using Filipino teachers because they are well-educated and experienced, yet cost far less than comparable educators even in South Korea. The robots read books and use pre-programmed software to sing songs and play games that help students learn the alphabet.

“The kids seemed to love it since the robots look, well, cute and interesting. But some adults also expressed interest, saying they may feel less nervous talking to robots than a real person,” noted Kim Mi-Young of the Daegu city office of education. Kim added that robots may be sent to remote areas of South Korea that foreign English teachers will not travel to.

The pilot program is scheduled to last four months, and is sponsored by the government at a cost of 1.58 billion won ($1.37 million).

– The drop out figures were released for California Thursday. African American and Hispanic students have the highest drop out rates in California’s public high schools. Thirty-seven percent of African Americans and twenty-seven percent of Hispanic students will not make graduation day. The numbers are based on 2009 data, and appear to be rising.

Oakland’s overall dropout rate is forty percent, while San Francisco is only at nine percent. On average, the state dropout rate is twenty-two percent, which is up from nineteen percent the prior year. The studies numbers still have to be confirmed.

2009’s numbers have been released several months later than usual. According to state schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell this is because of complications in launching a system that can track students’ progress in the California state school system even if they move.
“We now have a data system that allows us to track students more accurately and have honest conversations about how to improve graduation rates and reduce dropouts among all subgroups of students,” O’Connell said.

Mr. O’Connell listed the reasons for the increasing dropout rate to include larger class sizes, cuts to sports programs, fewer counselors, fewer art and music classes, and less access for students to career/technical courses.

– Jm Pero, Yoga 4 Peace Board President teaches the 200 Hour Program at the studio in Southgate. Upon successful completion of course requirements, graduates are eligible for Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) 200 Certification from the Yoga Alliance. These 2009 graduates now have RYT status:

Yoga Alliance is a U.S. national education and support organization and its standards provide teachers with a solid foundation for their yoga teaching practice and help protect the health and safety of society. These standards encompass the many aspects of yoga including anatomy and physiology, yoga lifestyle and ethics, teaching methodology, and techniques training. More than 25,000 yoga teachers and schools meet its internationally recognized standards of training, experience and ongoing professional development.